Domers in the News

Published: Winter 2000-01

Joseph A. Cari Jr. ’74, ’78J.D. was appointed national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee for the 2000 elections. . . . NASA’s 17-member astronaut candidate class of 2000 included two Domers from the Air Force: Col. Kevin A. Ford ’82 and Maj. Michael T. Good ’84, ’86M.A. Navy Capt. James Wetherbee ’74, a veteran of four space shuttle missions, is director of flight crew operations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and scheduled to command a shuttle mission this year. . . . Joe Bucolo ’90 appeared in the Fox television network’s short-lived reality-based series American High. Throughout the 1999-2000 school year, film crews followed 10 seniors at suburban Chicago’s Highland Park High School, where Bucolo teaches English. . . . Kate Sobrero ’98 was a defender on the U.S. women’s Olympic soccer team that won the silver medal in Sydney. . . . Nick Radkewich ’93, a former track and cross country runner at ND, finished 40th out of 48 in the men’s triathlon. His time was 1 hour, 53 minutes and 44 seconds, about six minutes behind the gold medalist. Mike Smedley ’96 competed at the U.S. triathlon trials but was forced to drop out. . . . Mark Muedeking ’80 has become general counsel of the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado. . . . Blind athletes Lori M. Miller ’97 and Matt King ’89 made the 2000 U.S. Paralympic team as tandem cyclists. They competed, separately, with sighted partners at the Paralympics in Sydney in October. They finished no higher than eighth in their events. . . . The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators awarded John Roncz ’71 a gold medal at a ceremony in London for helping design the Eagle, a light and relatively inexpensive aircraft made in Australia. Roncz has helped design more than three dozen aircraft, including the Voyager, which made history in 1986 by becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world on a single load of fuel. The plane hangs in the Smithsonian Institute’s Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. . . . Jack Sandner ’68J.D., former chair of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, is CEO of FreeDrive, a company that makes space available online to store information, photos and movies. . . . Former New Jersey superior court judge Andrew Napolitano ’75J.D. is the judge on the new Fox TV show Power of Attorney, in which famous litigators like Geoffrey Fieger (Dr. Jack Kervorkian’s defense attorney) and Christopher Darden (O.J. Simpson prosecutor) represent clients in civil cases. . . . The National Law Journal named Patrick F. McCartan ’56, ’59J.D., a partner in Cleveland’s Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue law firm and chair of ND’s Board of Trustees, as one of Ohio’s top-10 litigators. . . . Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine cited Kevin J. Short ’78J.D. and William A. Smoley ’71J.D. in an article titled “Super Lawyers 2000.” . . . Paul W. Armstrong ’73J.D., who represented the family of Karen Ann Quinland in the mid-1970s, was appointed judge of the New Jersey Superior Court in Somerville. . . . The American Prospect wrote about the work of Luka Misetic ’96J.D. in the article “Defending War Crimes Suspects is Bound to be Unpopular.” Misetic served as a defense counsel appointed to represent a Bosnian Croat accused of war crimes and facing trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.. . . . Congressman David E. Bonior of Michigan was so impressed with the speech given by Detroit Tigers President John McHale Jr. ’71 at the dedication of the team’s new stadium, Comerica Park, last April that he had it read into the Congressional Record. In his remarks McHale noted that 56 percent of the goods and services for the project were provided by minority, women-owned, small and local businesses, nearly double what organizers had promised. McHale’s father, John McHale Sr. ’43, played for the Tigers in the 1940s and later served as general manager or president of the Tigers, Milwaukee Braves and Expos. He was also assistant commissioner of baseball. . . . Sarah K. Mustillo ’96, a graduate student in sociology at Duke, was one of 15 students — out of 257 candidates nationwide — to receive Woodrow Wilson-Johnson & Johnson Dissertation Grants. The $2,000 awards go toward the expense of research for doctoral dissertations. . . . Charles R. Wilson ’76, ’79J.D. was sworn in as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, and former U.S. District Judge Ann Claire Williams ’75J.D. of Chicago joined the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. There are now seven Notre Dame graduates serving as federal appeals judges. . . . Brian T. Fitzpatrick ’97 who earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering summa cum laude from Notre Dame, won the Joshua Montgomery Sears Jr. Prize from Harvard Law School when he was a second-year law student. The prize was for having the highest grade-point average in his class. He later took home the law school’s Fay Diploma for graduating with the highest combined grade-point average. . . . Gary Hall ’96J.D. and Army Major Peter F. Najera ’87 were among 16 White House Fellows selected for 1999-2000. White House Fellows serve as full-time paid assistants to cabinet members and senior White House staff. They help read and review legislation, research public policy initiatives, respond to congressional inquiries and conduct policy briefings. . . . Joseph M. Scott Jr. ’68 was appointed judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. . . . The Seattle Times profiled Mary Yu ’93, chief of staff in the King County Prosecutor’s Office. She is the highest ranking woman and minority ever in the office. . . . John Cerone ’97J.D. was appointed a human rights officer with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. . . . A double CD from former Who guitarist Pete Townsend recorded live at Chicago’s House of Blues benefitted Maryville Academy, the Catholic facility in Des Plaines, Illinois, that cares for wards of the state. The academy is headed by Reverend John Smyth ’57. . . . Samuel A. Rumore Jr. ’71 was elected president of the Alabama State Bar Association. . . . Law master’s student Wadi Muhaisen, while enrolled in the Law School’s London Programme, was named spokesperson and legal counsel for the Palestinian Authority in London. He has served as a consultant to Yasser Arafat. . . . Margaret Ryan Collins ’95J.D. has been appointed to a Supreme Court clerkship for the 2001-02 term with Justice Clarence Thomas. . . . Donald A. Wich Jr. ’69, ’72J.D. was named 1999 Advocate of the Year by the Broward County (Florida) Legal Aid Society. . . . Cincinnati attorney Edmund J. Adams ’63J.D. was named to the Ohio Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s public universities. Regents are appointed for nine-year terms. . . . Air Force Brig. Gen. Francis X. Taylor ’70, ’74M.A. was named Outstanding Advocate for Women in Law Enforcement by the organization Women in Federal Law Enforcement. Taylor is commander of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. . . . James R. Sweeney ’50, director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, conducted training seminars throughout Malaysia on intellectual property law, rights, infringement and enforcement at the request of the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur. . . . Brian McAuliffe ’81 has been appointed director of finance and self-supporting ministries for suburban Chicago’s giant Willow Creek Community Church, which has a congregation of 15,000 and a weekly offering of $400,000. . . . Chicago police recovered the stolen Heisman Trophy ring of football great John Lattner ’54. The ring had been taken from his locker at a Chicago-area health club a month before. . . . Air Force Lt. Kate Wildasin Lowe ’97, led the flyover of four F-16 fighter jets at halftime of the Notre Dame-Air Force game at Notre Dame Stadium in October. Of the 1,621 F-16 pilots in the Air Force only 21 are women. . . . All four Domers in Congress were re-elected. They are Republican Peter King ’68J.D., New York; Democrat Tim Roemer ’81M.A., ’85Ph.D., Indiana; Democrat Peter Visclosky ‘73J.D., Indiana; and Republican Mark Souder ’74MBA, Indiana. . . . S. David Worhatch ’79J.D. of Hudson, Ohio, between Akron and Cleveland, lost the election for representative of Ohio’s 46th statehouse district. . . . Karl Peterson ’92 is president of Hotwire.com, a new discount airfare website similar to Priceline.com. It features six airlines that compete for a customer’s ticket request. . . . Terry Madden ’76J.D., chief of staff to U.S. Olympic Committee President Bill Hybl, will become chief executive officer of the new U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in April. In his new position, Madden will work closely with Anti-Doping Agency Chairman Frank Shorter and other members of the agency’s board to fight prohibited substances in international sport.